(WKBW-TV) BUFFALO, NY — Last week at this time, we talked about why it can be so windy in Western New York. Now the question is, why can it be so cloudy?
As we get deeper and deeper into the month of November, this kind of view of Buffalo seems to play out a lot. Overcast skies filled with low clouds relentlessly provide many shades of gray for more days than we care to count. Since I’m a weather stat guy, that number for November, on average, is 23, THE SAME AS SEATTLE! Now, there’s a good reason for this. So let’s look at some of those factors.
Our location nestled between two great lakes and downwind of several of them are the main drivers of our cloudy sky in the fall. That’s because cooler air blowing across the milder waters of the lakes picks up moisture from them. That moisture then condenses into water droplets forming clouds.
At approximately the same latitude as Buffalo lies Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Not being downwind of a lake, they record almost twice as many sunny days as we do at this time of year.
There’s also a little something called orographic lifting. Orographic lifting happens when cooler air is forced from a lower elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over a mountain or a hilltop. That air then condenses forming clouds, if that air is cool enough. As winds from either the northwest or southwest develop, the steeply sloped lay of the land of the Niagara region and Chautauqua County gives the air a little extra lift to the air and further promotes our notorious overcast.
By the way, did you ever wonder how we measure sunshine? One way is with an instrument that dates back to the 1800s. It’s called a pyroheliometer and is still used to this day to accurately record the total number of minutes of sunshine each day in a given location.
So now you know why Buffalo and Western New York can be so cloudy in November!
Got a weather question you'd like answered? E-mail me at weather@wkbw.com, and your weather question could be the subject of the next Josh's Weather Academy. I'm 7 Weather Meteorologist Josh Nichols. Stay weatherwise!
